Easy but painstaking. Buy all the rouges required for show, hubble telescope mirror finish. Or buy the minimum of rouges for a very nice driver finish. Most scratches, dings, and dents can be removed. Start with as low as 320 and work up to 2500,3000 grit; depending on the severity of imperfections. Use wooden dollies, brass and wooden punches, etc. I had a pro pedestal buffer which makes it easier. Now I just polish more simply. Touching off with a wool pad. Watch that buffer; catch trim the wrong way and it's toast.

 

Thanks Scott.

Any suggestions on where I might find the different compounds/rouges locally? I'm sure Eastwood would be more than happy to ship me a batch of theirs, just wondering if I could save myself the time and hassle of shipping.

Also, how likely am I to 'blue' these pieces with too much heat?

I'm guessing I should change wheels with each different compound too.

One last thing. My headlight bezels are in need of stripping of the old black paint before buffing. Lacquer thinner?

 

Thanks Scott.


One last thing. My headlight bezels are in need of stripping of the old black paint before buffing. Lacquer thinner?

I would recommend leaving the black paint if at all possible, buff around it and repaint with trim black that way you will have a good base for the paint to stick. I stripped the paint off my rear tail light trims and had a bear of a time getting the paint to lay down right. Good luck

 

Locally? Can't help you. Google or Bing. Eastwood is not the only source on the planet but has done a wonderful job of marketing to convince the hobbiest they are the be all and end all for supplies. I never bought one thing there in decades. Bezel Paint? Use stripper. They're aluminum and buff nicely but they are anodized and you have to remove it all for finish consistency. http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/665.cfm If you want to overheat the stainless and blue it you'll have to fire up your torch, or hold the piece on the wheel till the pad ignites. Use water when sanding the pieces, Obvious but forgot to be comprehensive on that.

 

You can go to Sears and get their buffing kit to get the rouges. Buy a couple buffing pads and use one for the rough compound (brown) and the other for the finish (white).
Turn on the grinder, stand to the side of the wheel and stick the brown rouge on it for about five seconds. Now bring a test piece in there and give it a try. Odds are you will have the piece grabbed and tossed away or even worse, wadded up and ruined. You could be bleeding also. It takes about half a second. Now try it again until you start getting the hang of it then try it with your stainless. You shouldn't be able to blue your stainless trim. When you have it looking good, bring it over to the white rouge wheel and put the finish buff on it. Your aluminum trim is a different story. It will buff out to chrome ONCE you gotten the anoidizing off but it will require maintianance from then on to keep from oxidizing. There is an anoidizing place in Spring Branch but I haven't had good luck reanoidizing trim pieces myself.

 

I know exactly what your talking about Roger. I still vividly remember 30 years ago in metal shop when a piece of angle iron simply disapeared from my hands while holding it at an improper angle to the grinder. That event alone sold me on eye protection while everyone else still thought it was un-cool to wear goggles.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Now I am unsure what my best course of action is for my headlight bezels. If they are anodized, can THAT be polished without burning through? How about chroming? I hate to pony up 100+ dollars when mine are in otherwise great shape. Barely scratched but dull, also a repaint or two on the black that needs to come off. Suggestions?

 

You will never be able to make the appearance of the anodized aluminum look like new by polishing. It's a contradiction to the process. One or the other: Clean it up and leave it or remove the anodizing, polish and maintain it. The black paint can still be redone without affecting the anodized finish. I sold 65 headliner trim to a gentleman and he told me in addition to my pervious link you can use Easy-OFF oven cleaner to remove the anodize. There are 2, Use the yellow can, it is stronger. The blue can is fume free.

 

Will stripping off the black paint harm the anodizing?

If so, can I then polish the aluminum bezels and clear coat them in order to not have to maintain the sheen?

 

Paint stripper won't harm the anodize. If you choose the removal and polish route, regular clearcoat will not hold up. That's why they anodize them. Clearcoats for metals have not been advanced to a state of adhesion superiority outside the aluminum wheel type as far as I know. Harley is doing it on tanks and fenders but I have not yet investigated what type of clear they are using... Next on my data aquisition list.

I had a set of 69 bezels I repaired and auctioned. I just fixed some dents and polished the immediate area and left the rest to the buyer. Alum is soft and you'll see it polishes much faster than S.S.

 

Sometimes the HD EZ Off works well to remove clear anodizing and sometimes it doesn't. It took 3 applications for my '69 headlight bezels but 12 applications for my grille trim still wouldn't get it all off. Next time I'll try lye, which I understand is the main ingredient in anodizing remover. BTW, for a car parked inside all the time re-anodizing really isn't necessary IMO. I just put a coat of wax on my polished bezels 6 years ago and they still look fine.

 

Hey Joe, where do you live in Houston? I'm in Spring Branch